The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) recently celebrated the opening of its bold $650 million Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care, designed by the Connecticut-based firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, with FKP Architects acting as the Architect of Record. Located on a landscaped three-acre parcel near the main hospital in Philadelphia, the state-of-the-art outpatient care center boasts 12 stories of undulating glass, highlighted with exuberant pops of color. While construction wrapped up over the summer, a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by civic leaders, hospital staff, the architects Cesar Pelli and Mark Shoemaker, and the Buerger family (who donated $50 million to the project) took place last month.

The unique shape of the 700,000-square-foot center is echoed in the furnishings, which enhance the playful aesthetic meant to provide up to 200,000 young patients with a positive and holistic medical experience each year. Also aiding that experience are themed play areas on each of the floors and a 14,000-square-foot terrace that crowns the six-story wing. Already the largest building project undertaken by CHOP, the center was designed with expansion in mind and can grow another four stories—roughly 275,000 square feet—should its current capacity be insufficient.

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